Leading a Team from a Functional Behavioral Assessment to a Practical and Effective Behavior Support Plan

1. Leading a Team from a Functional Behavioral Assessment to a Practical and Effective Behavior Support Plan Rob Horner University of Oregon TA-Center on Positive Behavior Support www.pbis.org

2. Assumptions and Objectives • Assumptions • Participants already conduct functional behavioral assessment • Participants are working with teams to build behavior support plans for individual students. • Objectives • Define core features of behavior support plans • Define a process for helping a team move from FBA to Behavior Support Plan content that is technically sound and contextually appropriate. • Define process for adapting planning process at your school.

3. School-Wide Positive Behavior Support Tertiary Prevention: Specialized Individualized Systems for Students with High-Risk Behavior ~5% Secondary Prevention: Specialized Group Systems for Students with At-Risk Behavior Primary Prevention: School-/Classroom- Wide Systems for All Students, Staff, & Settings ~15% ~80% of Students

4. A Context for PBS • Behavior support is the redesign of environments, not the redesign of individuals • Positive Behavior Support plans define changes in the behavior of those who will implement the plan. • A behavior support plan describes what we will do differently.

5. Major Changes in Behavior Support • Prevention • Teaching as the most effective approach • Environmental redesign, Antecedent Manipulations • Function-based support • Functional assessment • Team-based design and implementation of support • Comprehensive Interventions • Support plans with multiple elements • Link Behavior Support to Lifestyle Plan • Person-centered planning, Wraparound, Systems of Care • Systems Change • Intervention at the “whole-school” level • Systems that nurture and sustain effective practices • Systems that are durable

6. Purposes of Behavior Support Plan • Define critical features of environments where the focus person will be successful. • Behavior support plans describe what we will do differently to establish these critical features. • Facilitate consistency across multiple implementers. • Provide professional accountability.

7. Behavior Support Elements *Team *Specialist Problem Behavior *Hypothesis statement *Competing Behavior Analysis *Contextual Fit Functional Assessment *Implementation Plan Content of Support Plan Fidelity of Implementation *Technical Adequacy * Strengths * Preferences * Lifestyle vision Impact on Behavior and Lifestyle

8. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Defined: • Functional behavioral assessment is a process for identifying the events that reliably predict and maintain problem behavior.

9. Outcomes of a Functional Behavioral Assessment • Operationally defined problem behavior(s) • By response class • Identify routines in which the problem behavior is most and leastlikely to occur • Define the antecedent events (triggers; setting events) that predict when the problem behavior is most likely • Define the ONE consequence that contributes most to maintaining the problem behavior in that routine. • Summary Statement of findings.

10. FBA Summary Statement Setting Events Triggering Antecedents Problem Behavior Maintaining Consequences 4 2 1 3 In room with Noise and/or many people Avoid noise/people Allergies Head Hit

11. Primary Purposes of Functional Behavioral Assessment • The primary purpose of functional behavioral assessment is to improve the effectivenessand efficiency of behavior support. • Behavior support plans built from functional assessment are more effective • Didden et al., 1997 Newcomer & Lewis, 2006 • Carr et al., 1999 Ingram, Sugai & Lewis-Palmer • Ellingson, et al., 2000; Filter (2004) • Create order out of chaos • Define contextual information, where, when, with whom, etc. • Professional accountability • FACTS

12. Effective Environments • Problem behaviors are irrelevant • Aversive events are removed • Access to positive events are more common • Problem behaviors are inefficient • Appropriate behavioral alternatives available • Appropriate behavioral alternatives are taught • Problem behaviors are ineffective • Problem behaviors are not rewarded • Desired behavior ARE rewarded

13. Place Summary Statement in Competing Pathways Model • Use information from interviews and observations to summarize: • Problem behavior • Antecedent Triggers • Maintaining Consequences • Setting Events

14. Acceptable Alternative: 1.Same consequence 2.Socially acceptable 3.Very efficient

15. Play with others Peer social interaction Reprimand during prior class Playground Scream at / threaten others Get access to game or equipment Use “pass” Ask supervisor

16. Leading a Team from FBA to BSP • 1. Summarize FBA • 2. Define goals of BSP process: • Make problem behavior irrelevant • Make problem behavior inefficient • Make problem behavior ineffective • Do all this in a contextually appropriate manner • 3. Lead discussion to identify options • Ask questions, don’t give solutions • Paraphrase, elaborate, integrate • Always bring group back to FBA logic • Produce multiple ideas (elements)

17. Make Problem Behavior Ineffective And Positive Behavior More Effective Make Problem Behavior Inefficient Make Problem Behavior Irrelevant Examples of Interventions

18. Leading a Team from FBA to BSP • 4. Given an array of possible BSP elements, shift discussion to contextual fit. • What elements are feasible, acceptable, sustainable?’ • What is the smallest change that will produce the largest effect? • Contextual Fit: • The extent to which the people who will implement a behavior support plan find the elements of the plan • Consistent with their personal values • Consistent with the professional skills • Consistent with the resources available in the setting • Consistent with the available administrative support

19. Leading a Team from FBA to BSP • 5. Transform ideas for BSP elements into a formal plan for implementation • Who will do what, when, and how will we know?

20. Outline of a Behavior Support Plan • Set Up (description, strengths, vision) OutlineBSP Template • Assessment (FBA, Person-Centered Plan, Wraparound) • Operational Descriptions, Routines, FA Hypotheses • Prevention • Teaching/Education • Consequence Procedures • Minimize reward for problem behavior • Ensure regular, clear reward for positive behavior • Punishers (if needed) • Define safety/emergency procedures (if needed) • Evaluation and Monitoring for Improvement • Steps for implementation

21. Examples:Define (a) summary statement (b) prevention, (c) teaching, (d) consequences • Emmit • Eric • Rayette • FACTS • Behavior Support Plan

22. Summary • Invest in building consensus around FBA summary statement. • Recruit strategies that are local, practical, but still consistent with FBA…(Lead don’t tell). Recruit local knowledge • Build efficient plans (the smallest changes that produce the largest effect) • Ensure that the plan includes procedures for getting implementation to occur. • Always include procedures for evaluation • Are we doing what we said we would do? • Is the process having an effect on the student?